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Professional dominatrix Madelaine Thomas represents not at all your typical startup entrepreneur. After multiple instances of individuals leaking her private explicit images, she felt "sufficiently outraged to take action" and looked to technology for answers.

"Those were beautiful pictures, I'm unapologetic of the photographs, I'm ashamed of the manner that they were used against me by an individual who I have never met," explained Madelaine.

Just over a year since founding her company, Image Angel, which uses covert digital tracking to identify abusers, has garnered significant recognition and was cited as exemplary procedure in an independent pornography review earlier this year.

This marks quite a departure from her previous career in providing BDSM services, dominating clients in the world of kink and bondage.

The Pervasive Problem

The non-consensual sharing of private images, often referred to as revenge porn, is a punishable crime with offenders facing up to two years in prison.

It is not at all an issue exclusively faced by those in the sex industry. A report suggests that approximately 1.42% of the UK female population is affected by intimate image abuse on an annual basis.

Madelaine, 37, explained victims endured feelings of humiliation. "I think a lot of people will comment, 'you put a private image out on the internet, what do you anticipate?'," she noted.

"I expect respect, I expect consideration, and I expect confidence, and I don't see why those are up for debate," she continued. "The reality that those images could be subsequently distributed in my community or with people I love and employed to cause them pain, that's unacceptable, that's not a decision I made, that's not an error on my part, that's an individual committing abuse."

A Unique Journey

Madelaine has been working as a professional dominatrix, mainly online, for a decade and consistently found her work empowering and fulfilling. "It's me as a woman in control, a woman who is empowered and strong, offering my body as a gift to someone because I wish to," she said.

"Some believe it's strange but I view it similarly to a nutritionist or an financial advisor providing a service," she remarked.

She embraces being something of an anomaly in the world of tech. "I know that it's unconventional, it's remarkable to think that someone who was a dominatrix is now a founder of a tech company, but it required someone who has experienced it firsthand to know the loopholes and the changes that were necessary," she explained.

She maintained she was not technically inclined and was managed to build her company after a lot of sleepless nights, research and "consulting experts" who understand tech.

How Does the Technology Work?

Image Angel can be implemented on any online platform where people share images, for instance social connection apps, social media and websites.

When an image is accessed by a viewer, it is seamlessly tagged with an undetectable digital marker which is unique to them.

This covert marker is embedded into the digital file of the image itself and can survive screenshots, being edited and being photographed with a different camera.

It means that if you discover your image has been circulated without your consent, providing the service you used has the technology embedded, the viewer's details will be hidden within the image and can be extracted by a data recovery specialist so legal steps can follow.

Currently, one platform has implemented her tech and she's in talks with many others.

Proven Technology, New Application

"The system already exists in the film industry, it is employed in sports broadcasting so this is not an untested concept, it's just a novel use and a different framework," explained Madelaine.

"We have validated it, we're partnering with a company that has decades of expertise in tech development so we know that this is solid and what we now need to do is test it at scale," she continued.

She expressed hope she hoped the technology would also act as a preventive measure to would-be perpetrators.

Removing Stigma, Shifting Blame

An advocate from a leading helpline commented she had seen first-hand the panic, distress and self-blame this abuse inflicted on victims.

"When that guilt is compounded by a misinformed friend or service who says 'what did you expect?' that guilt can really be deepened so it's really important that the support a victim receives is that they have not done anything wrong," she emphasized.

She noted it was fantastic that Madelaine was leveraging her ordeal to create solutions, saying: "It is vital to have this multi-layered approach towards addressing technology-enabled gender-based abuse, because no one tool is going to be able to tackle this alone, not just support services, it needs to be this multi-layered response."

TV presenter Jess Davies was only fifteen when photographs of her in a state of undress were shared around her town. It was the first of several incidents Jess experienced in her youth that would later inform her advocacy work.

"It required years, too long for someone to tell me, 'you are not to blame' and 'that was wrong'," recalled Jess.

She too is passionate about removing the stigma of this crime from the victims to the offenders. "It isn't a crime to willingly share an image to someone," said Jess.

"But it is a crime to distribute that non-consensually and I think that should always be where the blame is," she affirmed.